Deutsche Bahn railway station clock
Deutsche Bahn railway station clock

How we got to now - six innovations include: glass, time, clean, light, sound, and cold.

  • Time (video 5:39) - Making the Modern Clock: Understand how Galileo discovered that a pendulum could be used to regulate clocks.

  • Clean - The Quest for Clean Water: Discover how John Leal found the solution to ridding bacteria from dirty water with chlorine at the turn of the 20th century.

  • Light - Invention of the Light Bulb: Though we often credit Thomas Edison with the invention of the light bulb, he and his team built on more than 40 years of research by other inventor...

  • Cold - Keeping Ice Frozen Before Refrigeration: Explore the myth of the "Eureka moment" in innovation as you learn how Frederic Tudor figured out how to move ice long distances in the ...

  • Sound - Noise Control and the Decibel: Stand on the corner of 34th Street and 6th Avenue in New York City with How We Got To Now host Steven Johnson, and explore the history of attempts...

  • Glass - The Invention of the Microscope and Telescope


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